Saturday, January 31, 2009

Directly after picking Happy up in Grays Harbor County on Thursday we drove out to see Vivian at the beach. Vivian has several Border Collies. Four permanent dogs (three BC's and one hound of mixed parentage), two fosters and one "pseudo-foster" (she can't decide if she wants to keep him or not).

We went to the beach for a Border Collie Party!

When we got to the beach everyone was so excited! Border Collies everywhere!

Whoops, Happy fell down!

Happy likes to get about 50 feet away and wait for you to throw the ball, then he will watch and dart over to grab it. Not much gets him to move - here Gwen the anti-BC is saying hello. Happy couldn't care less - he is watching Vivian with the ball.

Ranger says - "Look what I can do! Where are my paws? Where is the ball?"

Ranger buried the ball. The other dogs think Ranger is an idiot. So Ranger dug it back up then tried to dig a bigger hole. He told me he was trying to bury Happy. He said 'no one is that happy all the time'

NOTE: see Happy in the background - still not moving.

Ranger said "Did you see me do that cool thing with the ball? The girls all think I am so hot!"

Beth ignored him. Bonnie said he was an fugly-ugly moron. Then she ran after her new buddy Abe who has speckles like her.

After making googly eyes at Abe, Bonnie wandered over and drank a bunch of salt water (which she puked up in the back seat on the way home. Ranger secretly thought it was hysterical).

As you can see Happy still hasn't moved much. First Bonnie circled him, then Beth.

Bonnie says "Seagull poop up here, everyone come smell!"

Ranger falls for it every time...

WOW! Happy MOVED! He cleared that log with the best of them!

He can also pose like a statue

Oh look, Stepford Collies. (I only say that because for some reason these pictures kinda give me the creeps! They look to perfect...)

The sun is going down, the shadows are getting long - time to go home..

Happy is ...well I guess you can say he is very Happy. (The photos labeled Red Dog Photography were taken by Vivian. Vivian facilitated Happy's placement into BC Rescue)

Happy is a direct owner surrender. His family had been active in rescue for much of their lives, they rescued horses, chickens, water fowl, fostered injured wild animals prior to release back into the wild. Happy was their last rescue. Happy's mom is experiencing significant health challenges thus unable to give him the exercise and stimulation he needs - which prompted his placement into foster care. This was a very difficult decision for them, but their love for Happy out weighed their desire to keep him.

Happy's dad told me how he came by his name. One day when he came home Happy came running to him, wagging his whole body. He said "You are such a happy guy!" Happy it was.

His former family found Happy in the woods behind their home. He had been severely beaten his jaw appears to have been fractured many of Happy's teeth are missing on the bottom (We will be seeing if he will need any type of dental work done on his mouth). His dad said that he had seen that type of injury before - it usually came from the heel of a boot.

As you can see in this picture - where Happy's tongue hangs from his mouth he is missing the lower teeth. His jaw is also misshapen and makes it difficult for him to close his mouth all the way. The result is quite endearing - he always seems to have his tongue hanging out just a smidgen.

The condition of his mouth doesn't seem to have interfered with his ability to eat! Happy is a chunky bear. He has a good 10 - 15 lbs to lose.

I know I say this with every foster. But I am seriously thinking about keeping Happy. His personality reminds me of Katie.

One drawback - Happy couldn't care less about sheep. When we exposed him to sheep today he was not even interested in them. All he wanted to do was scoot his butt across the pen, sit at my feet and wiggle against me, looking up with the most adorable loving smile saying "pet me, come on, pet me, you know you want to pet me".

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Finally Tyler's introduction to sheep video! (Please disregard the large gorilla wearing her husband's red shirt in the pen with him).

After working very hard in Obedience 101 Miss Bonnie has earned the right to approach sheep again. She had the right attitude - calm, interested (somewhat focused) yet obedient. The goal right now is to make sure that Bonnie knows she doesn't rule the world and all encounters with sheep are positive. She is not old enough for any type of serious training. Chris also decided to keep Bonnie's drag line on to further keep her under control and to enable her to be successful.

John worked Beth this weekend on some very snarky lambs. It was a real pleasure to watch her try and figure out how to handle them. She was used to working on dog broke sheep - she was getting challenged with these lambs.

Beth even manages to look delicate and ladylike in the field. Little Miss Priss didnt want to get her feet wet in the upper part of the field. She kept dodging puddles and mole hills & still kept the sheep in line.

Beth produced some stunning outruns and nice straight drives.

Karen Child complimented John & Beth after watching some of their work. Unfortunately John skipped his monthly lesson with Karen this week because he hasn't had the time to work on the things she told him to focus on in December (due to the weather and working overtime on Saturday's).

Is it just me...or do Beth's ears seem just a bit to big for her head?

If I nice wind came up...whoosh....Bat Dog would take flight!

Grace is very interested in learning herding. John has been taking her in the field with him and explaining everything. I think it is pretty cool! We need to buy her some good boots. Poor little kid's feet were soaking wet on those boots...Time to get her some BOGS Boots!

I was pleased with this picture. I finally got the focus on the right thing!

Beth looks like she is saying "What do you mean 'that'll do?'"

Wooohoooo Beth full on running after this one lamb that refused to stay with the rest. She has been reliably 'looking back' every time one splits off.